Some things must be said

      Fair person in Romania, I write this to you as a way of staying respectful while still being objective. I do not wish to down-talk your country, however some things God is calling me to write about, maybe for my own sake just as much for yours.

     Dear Romanian,
God told me this would happen. God told me that nothing could stay the same. He warned me that tears would fall and depression would consume me. The storm has hit. Now where do I belong? I thought that coming BACK to America would be easy! Yeah, BS. It hurts to see rich people complain, It hurts to see "POOR" Americans complain. They have it so much better than those in your country, Romanian, yet they still question why God would send them through a "hardship". I dont want to be a part of this "American Dream" any more. I would call it the American Nightmare, You cannot serve two masters Romanian! Either you live for that Dream, or you live for Jesus. And dont try to fool yourself, you cannot persue both equally hard. The human heart falls too quickly for that! Blessed are the Poor! For their's is the Kingdom of Heaven! Dont consider yourself good by giving what you have American, but consider yourself blessed to BE ABLE to give what you have!

      Romanian, your country is a dark one. The more I look back, this is the more I see. So many wandering, seemingly emotion-less, through their depressed lives. A spirit of Evil resides over your country fair Romanian. I tell you this, not to provoke anger, but to provoke leadership. Look around you! Have you not seen the churches? They are the most corrupt! They scare you into giving them money! They encourage that which is contrary to the Bible! Dont you listen Romanian? I dont even speak the language, but I was able to hear a corrupt preacher! You know what I talk about! The man, fatter than a fattened calf, beautiful fitted suit, bifocal glasses, brand-new mudless shoes, and a voice that will break your ear no matter how far away you are! They reached far down into my inmost spirit, and tapped into the flow of anger from inside of me. They are so deceptive, they will go as far to cry even if they must convince you of something. Just look at them Romanian, and then turn your eye to the town. Do they belong in such a poor, muddy town? You make the call Romanian, but the answer is easy to see. You also bicker among yourselves in such childish ways! Someone hurts you so you dont talk to them, you also decide you dont want to stand close to them either. Do they even know that they hurt you Romanian? For it is to one's glory to overlook an offense! (Proverbs) Can you do more than just yell at the children Romanian? They will not respond well to that. Encourage them to do right! Dont bash them for doing wrong. You will lead them in the wrong direction. Please for their sake Romanian, hear my plea! Lead them in the right path! And you, practicing tongues in the church, shut up and read 1 Corinthians 14:27. Seriously, if there is no interpreter, then I want you to shut it and dont make no blabbing peep.

    Why do I tell you this Romanian? Because it is time to step up. God has a plan for your country, and God wants YOU to initiate it. It all starts here: I dont give a crap how much you read your Bible, pray, or go to church IF you have NO FRUIT! The last thing I want for you is to listen to a sermon and then go right back to living your life. Please Romanian! Step it up!

     MEN. Listen to me, listen to my words, apply them! It is time to stop acting like boys over women. I know who you are, you who call yourself pure, yet do every woman you meet. And you who gets so jealous when another guy hangs out with a girl you find attractive, that you treat that man with disrespect and you hate him for it! Grow up you petty boy. Treat women like a princess. No matter how much they want to do you, say no to a kiss. When a girl asks you to do something, do it not to gain their favor, do it to show them the love of Christ. And you, in the church. Above all, practice what you preach. Dont be a hypocrite. Persue God in everything, Love those who hate you, only then can the country turn around. But it is up to you.

     WOMEN. Just stop it! You are not the only ones who love money. Yet you still take advantage of men with open hearts to get at their pocket? You lying, thieving generation! And you, in the church, why do you act all holy at church, just to act like everyone else outside of the church? And please grow up. You dont solve a problem by deciding to not talk to that person. Oh yeah, and dont keep your legs open for every single guy you meet. Seriously. Saying no is the best thing you can do for yourself.

     To all you Virgins, CHERISH THAT! Why do you think of it as bad?! EVEN YOU IN THE CHURCH think it is bad! Save yourself for the person you are married to! And while you are at it, flaunt your virginity. Show them that Christ conquers all desire and all evil!



     Romanian, is it hard to believe that I wish to come back to your country? After all that I have said? That is the longing in my heart, and that is where God is calling me to go. I want to come back Romanian! I want to see you again! I love your country! The darkest countries are where the crops are the most ripe! I love you Romanian! I love your language! You all have a special place in my heart. I feel home there, I miss it even now. Dont take what I have said as hate against you. Take it as rebuke, take it as hate against sin. I only want you to find everything you need in Christ!

     Peace be with you Romanian, and may you follow where God leads you as I wish to follow where God leads me!

This is where I must apologize...

      As you may or may not know, my time here will be ending shortly. I have just broken the "3 weeks left" barrier. I do not have a ton of free time because things are really getting busy. Spring is starting, work needs to get done, and shananigans like that.

     So unfortunately, I will not be updating the blog very often anymore for the last couple weeks. I feel like I really need to devote my time to the things here. So continue to check, but dont be expecting much more. So this is where I say I am sorry.  

      I will "try to" continue to post pictures on facebook. And I may write some little blog posts here and there. =]

Would you like some tea and crumpets for the Trolley?

    So the team from England was not quite what I expected, yet exceeded all my excpectations! The team consisted of two older gentlemen. Here they are! (John on the left and Steve on the right?) I think, but am not sure.

     They only stayed for two days, however I wonder if God sent them here to encourage me because oh my goodness! They were so encouraging and I learned a TON from them. They told me that they were just like me at one point, working and not very happy. Then all of a sudden an opportunity came up to go to Romania on a missions trip, and they took it (with some amazing help from God)! They have been coming to this orphanage for 23 years! I'm not even that old! Some of the grown men here today were just little boys when the two first came around. They left me with this: Dont worry about the next step, dont worry about the future, God probably wont even show you the next step until you have finished the one you are on currently in life. But trust in Him! It is like jumping out of a plane without a parachute, taking that step and then relying on God to work it out. John said that people, even strong Christ followers, will still try to strap that parachute on your back, but dont let them! Our God is amazing, we dont need a parachute when we have Him! Take each day, one by one, because it might be the last time God has you doing that in that chapter of your life. As you complete your step and enter a new one, God might never have you do that again. So enjoy what you are doing now! Live!   <- advice from the two.

     So today I said goodbye to them and thoroughly enjoyed cleaning black mold off of walls around the orphanage with a spray can of Russian bleach and a washcloth. I really did! I made a very bad mistake and sprayed some bleach on the ceiling right above me and a large amount got into my eye. However what should have been terrible pain was little more than a small sting for a few seconds and I was able to walk to my sink and rinse out my eye. I am positive that God just protected my eye because I dont know if I should be able to see right now, but nothing is wrong with my eye. So that is awesome! =] And yes I can pronounce that Russian on the bottle. =]

     I played my second game of Dota 2. It sucked. Andy Hold, and Swadagers! I want to come hiking with you guys this summer ok? And I want to go hiking a lot! Thanks. =] I believe I have gained weight and gotten a little stronger. But not anything like me being ripped. I am far from that.

     You know what else I learned about? Some of the kid's stories. Oh my lanta! So so terribly sad! But to see what they have become after such hard times in their childhood is incredible! I do not feel comfortable posting their stories online. But let's just say that being abandond is nothing comparitively. Yet regardless, I have cried more about the wonders of Christ and what He is doing in my life. The past is the past. Let's focus on the now.

     There is so much I could talk about! But there is so much work to do! Moses told me today that my gift is music. I would say rythm or beats. =] but I really appreciate it! I get to teach all the kids to play different instruments. Unfortunitally, I am totally not the right guy for this job becuase I dont know how to play them. But God has me here and no one else knows how to teach the instruments. So I am taking all the things I learned in the 5-ish years of band class, the random times people have tried to teach me bass or guitar, all the drumming practice I had, and all the piano practice I had, and pouring it into these kids as best I can. Or at least I want to do that more. XD I speak enough of the language now to try to help them with this too. please pray for this! I am not the right man for the job, but I guess I am now because God put me in that position.

    Also a ton of people have had a birthday party! Most notably Nin and Lorena! Here is Lorena! (and Jonny)

She is the daughter to Ady. We all got together and celebrated in the basement of the church in a room that we had just cleaned out. =] It was super fun and we watched "Yes man" in the evening. La Multi Ani Lorena!

     Now regarding one more thing. I have been there, yes I am talking to all of you who are part of something but dont really contribute much to that which you are a part of. You feel like you are worthless, following and not giving anything in return. Taking benefit and not being able to help in return. Maybe you are the worker doing all the small things, cleaning up after people, helping out with small things here or there. But let me tell you this, I have learned something amazingly important yesterday. There is a man who goes to the church here. He is always early, and one of the first one's in the church. He does not really have a job. He does not play in the band, he doesnt sing, he doesnt preach, heck I know almost nothing about him. He might turn on the sound equipment. I dont know, but what I do know is this. He is always there, he is always around to help, and I will never forget him! His smile just takes over your soul and lifts up your day. It is the most encouraging thing in the world to walk into the church and see him sitting in the same place in the back next to the tech equipment with a huge smile on his face every single Sunday! I dont even know his name, but this middle aged man inspires me! His devotion to God and his willingness to help others is amazing!  Dont you worry, I will get a picture of him!

     Finally be glad your toilet is not this one, Thanks for the prayer guys! I can see the amazing things  God is doing because of your prayers!

Seriously the cutest thing ever!

    This is Ela (on the left). She is about 7 years old and really misses her foster family, the only thing is she thinks they are her real family. I think the rule is that the foster family (after taking care of her for two years) is not allowed to interact with her. I might be wrong, but they supposedly moved to Germany and I have heard from other people that they didn't. It's sad is what it is.

     Anyways, she was more quiet but now that she is not shy around me, she is really really awesome and hilarious! She loves it when I pick her up and spin around, so one of her favorite things to do is this: She will tell me "Stai" which means "Stay here", then she runs to one end of the hall and says "Gata?" And I say "Gata!" (ready) and she runs toward me with all her might and at the last second she jumps into my arms and I spin her around! Then after a bit I set her down and she says "Un codata?" meaning "One more?". I say "Uhhh, Da" and she runs to the end of the hall again. Every time I put set her down she says "Un codata?" and I say "hmmm Ok! Bine!" <3 She is so cute! I love her so much! That has got to be the cutest thing eeeevvvaarrrr!!!

This one is a short post, check out the other one below! (ITS LONGER)

I have never been so in love!

     As some of you may already have seen, I feel this incredible love for Christ! I can't help but tell absolutely everyone about it! I dont just have to talk about how I love Christ, I feel His love back towards me! If I dont get anything else out of this trip, it would be totally worth it!

    Let me try to get caught up here a bit! Some stuff has happened! =] Let me start off with a comprehensive list of pictures of the kids coming soon hopefully!

     Ionut's brother Florin Farcal has come home from London! He is quite a joyful guy it seems and hilarious like his brother. His accent is also the best thing ever because it is a mix of a latin Romanian accent with an English accent! Haha and I love hearing him say "rubbish". Anyways that is pretty cool.

      So Romania celebrates a day called "Woman's Day". It is not Mother's Day because they celebrate that too. I asked Dorel if there was a "Man's Day" and he said "Yeah, it is April 1st". XD HAHA. So lame girly things happen en masse. So on March 1st, you are supposed to give older women and friends who are girls little fake flower things in a packet with some paper design shananiganry. Umm let me just post pictures of some I made. 

     Yes I made those, Yes the first one is a triforce. I made that one for Corina. =] KEKEKE But yeah, Maria and I made these the other day and now I am giving my four out. When you give them, you must say, "O prima veara frumoasa" which means "It is going to be a beautiful spring" Literal translation... "a first beautiful spring". Yeah, weird I know. But tradition is tradition, and ill be a part of that. =]

    I am going to complain for a minute because I have not complained in a while. So probably the only super annoying thing that I have experienced here is that the people have a lot of strange wives-tales regarding things like water and work. It is very frustrating, like for example: If you run a lot outside, they wont let you take a drink of water because they believe it will make you very sick. Seriously?! I do that all the time and never get sick. They also believe that drinking water before or during your meal takes 10 years from your life. I honestly dont care about it even if science would back this one up. I like my water. And other one I have come across is if you work and sweat outside during "cold" weather, and you take of clothing because you are hot, then you will get extreme pain in those areas in the future. For example, If I take off my hat while my forehead is sweating (because my heat is hot) then I will have terrible headaches starting in my mid 40's for the rest of my life.Same with the back and stuff. So you could live in fear of these things, or you could BE FROM MONTANA AND NOT GIVE A CRAP!!! =] woo hoo guns!

    I should also point out that people here are very scared of guns, and theft is a rediculously huge problem here.

   Ok I am done complaining. =]

La Multi Ani pentru Ana!

    In case you dont know what that means, it is Happy Birthday for Ana! She turned 7 yesterday! (Middle)

She is so sweet, and very talkative. =] It was a lot of fun, but the happy birthday song is different, so I moved my mouth while blandly spitting out a tune that was close to the new song.. Haha LEARNING IS HAPPENING GUYS.

    Speaking of learning, I have recently been able to have conversations with people who dont really speak english or dont like english. Wow it is amazing being able to speak a different language! By the way, I have gotten into habbits of saying Romanian phrases. I also talk to myself in Romanian sometimes too. So if i say something you dont understand, dont worry about it. =] Haha and I still have a month to go. I want to go a whole day without speaking one word of English. I am going to do it. It WILL HAPPEN!

    I also got the opportunity to look at a potential orphanage to help expand the current one here. It is at a really nice place at the base of a hill. We (Monica, an older man, and me) climbed up to the top of the mountain and it was amazing! I could see Lipova and Arad which is a 45 minute drive away.
Absolutely awesome!  Here is a picture of only a small part of the view.

     Otherwise, pray. There is a lot going on that I dont understand. But God knows.

Killing lunch and Gettin' Owned!

    Yeah, yeah, I watched a turkey die. I wanted to take a video of it at first, but after witnessing it... I am glad I didnt take a video. Its not entertaining by any means. Poor guy, however he is going to taste so good later. I have some pictures for you, I purposfully tried to hide that which is greusome. Let's just say there was a head severed from its body and a bloody knife left over.

      You can see in the first two pictures the turkey seems to know what is coming. It is cowering down and hiding in a sense. In the next three, you can see dinner.... almost....

 

 












      It is saturday at the moment! It is like a half break day. The morning is full of work and chores for the kids while I find someone to help. And some work is done in the afternoon too, but it's really chillax (compared to the weekdays). I just finished playing Sandwich with Nin. Let's just say that he (because I told him to not cheat) has been finding all the strategies and shortcuts of the game. He has quickly established dominance over the whole house as the best player.... And he is possibly the youngest one here. X.X Absolutely incredible!

     So I was playing against him and he straight up beat me. I lost a game of Sandwich... That has never happened before! I.... I can't lose! I am extremely proud of him! After that we played a game which was just silly. =] Let me just say this, about half way through, I noticed that Nin was putting down a whole lot less face cards than he was getting. I was curious until I watched him very carefully to see that he was putting cards into a separate pile. So I asked to see that pile, he refused and I told him I would not do anything to it or shuffle it. So I got to see it and it was EVER SINGLE FACE CARD in his deck.

      How in the world did he manage that without me knowing?! He had been separating his cards into the "good cards" and "bad cards" all while playing the game with me, and me not even noticing. This kid is crazy man.

Here is Nin, and all the cards on the ground are his... XD Well played sir, well played.

GUYS I AM GETTING PWNED BY A SIX YEAR OLD!!! =]








    Maria left for Vulcan Romania, and she told me that she would get a picture with Spock. So I am counting on her! I was going to be going to Bucharest in a week, but it doesn't look like that will be happening at the moment. Don't worry, there is still some time to go!

    Pray! Pray for these kids! For Maria! For the men in this town! For leaders here, Moses and Ady! Pray for me!

#Homesick??

     Oh man, I am starting to miss the things of home... I miss Venture Church and everyone there soooo much! I miss the processed, sugar food! And I miss all of you guys, no matter where I knew you from. You are a dear friend to me!

     But see, here is the hard part. No matter where I go now, I will miss something. I love this place they call Romania! I love the people here! I've made so many friends, and I am going to miss them all so much when I have to.... I am not going to think about that yet. =] I still have another month and a half here... that is not a lot of time... Oh, and I am in the local news paper! XD HAHAHAHA WOOT

    I think I am going to kick my picture taking into high gear now. I am going to go super tourist on Maria and Ionut. They wont know what hit them. Oh and I will probably be headed to Bucharest in a week for a little while! Oh snap, I hope no one has built a hotel on that parking place. Dont worry dont worry, I said I would kick picture-taking into full gear! I give you the goodies.

    And no, I am not done painting the doors... we got three new ones... yay.... XD


This is Darius Urs, He is Maria's brother and Moses' nephew. If you are around him then WELCOME TO CRAZY TOWN! He has a good time and likes to goof off all the time. He doesn't really speak any English, but he and I have formed this bond from the first day I came. He feels like one of my best friends. =D God Bless him because he has such a bright future!












And now I leave you with this... "This sentence says something profound." ~Anonymous... ;]

From Construction to Agriculture

    Wow wow wow! So much to talk about? maybe, I cant post most of it on this blog which is disappointing (mostly because it is too personal). But God is doing crazy things to my heart and is teaching me, but more on that later.

    Work is getting interesting. I started out this morning with a good talk with Tom and then went to work. I began by moving 30 large sheet rock things from a truck into the house and then proceeded to take them all up a flight of stairs. After that, I finished painting the doors... I HOPE.... And helped with minor construction things. After a crazy strange but really really yummy lunch, I helped the kids with some random chores. When we were "gata", I went straight to the green houses to begin work there. I began by pulling grass out of the small apple trees..

    OK, FUN FACT FOR YOU. They literally have (what looks like) sticks planted in the ground (they are actually apple trees). They tie the wood from big fresh apple trees around the stick. And in the summer, the stick will grow quite large apples/ pears/ oranges/ anything you want depending on what bark you tie around the stick. IT IS SO STRANGE! So we pull up the grass from inside the pots that the sticks are in. Then we begin the task of tilling (I think that is what it is) all the dirt preparing for seeds to be planted blah blah blah yeah. =] But we dont have any fancy DIRT-TILLER AUTOMATIC 3000 from Home Depot. We have 3 shovels. =D Let me just tell you how fun that is..... its as fun as, "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." (Gen 3:19) 
I am just glad I dont have to bear children. PASS.

     I AM SORRY, I dont have pictures of us ice skating. However it is so much fun even though I am going around in the same small circle for several hours. I also did some improv rap and ate a "large amount" of ice cream and soda. So large in fact that everyone in the shop was looking at me and laughing. I'm from America son, dont you go messing with me and my sugar. =] Man, their portions here are SO SMALL. And the ice cream is quite inexpensive. But I cannot find a 1 liter of soda... anywhere! They have like 1/4th a liter or something dumb like that. =[ But the two liters will do i guess. And the sugar snacks are small and empty. You usually end up eating air with sprinkles on it. ='[ I really just want a tub of ice cream. XD But either way I had a great time with the group, Arne, Elisa, David, Lorena, Ionut (Jonny), Maria, and Roxanna. They are awesome and really funny. =]

      This place is beginning to feel like a second home to me. I have grown very accustom to not being able to understand what people are saying all the time (at least they think I dont understand what they are saying) ;] I just am really starting to realize how much I am going to miss this place! Mostly the people though. They are all so awesome and I cant leave them! I cant hardly believe I left everyone in America either. But God's plan trumps mine, always. Maria told me that she is going to cry when I leave. :'] And I have only been here for a month now. Man, I even the people that I met from Arad I miss already. Is something wrong with me? XD

     Please please keep praying for me! God is teaching me how to listen to Him. He has been continuing to answer my prayers directly, so I think I am doing something right! =]

    I still remember the first day I arrived, way out of my league. Nothing could have been more frightening. Yet God has allowed me to fit in. I still have another month and a half. But I dont like counting down... I am just going to refuse to think about the fact that I have to .... WAIT. Not gonna think about it. =]

Imi este foame ba. Ceau! Vreu mancare acum!

DONT GET COMFORTABLE!!

    Comfort is what I ran from in the first place! Now this place is feeling like home, which there is nothing wrong with. The problem comes when I get up just to do the mundane and not take much thought into anything. As soon as I go into autopilot, I begin to decend. I will tell you, God is stretching me right now (and it hurts a lot), but I need to press onward, rejecting pacivity and taking on responsibility! God is telling me to start getting to know the men here spiritually. So it's time to ask the tough questions.

     Sometimes I wonder... "Who is changing more by my being here, me or the orphanage?" Then i come to my senses and say, "It's definitely me who is being changed more.." I was talking to Moses about how he started the orphanage, he told me," This work is purely Faith work." Oh great... I have to reliquish more of my control over the situation. =D But he is right, you never have enough money when running an orphanage, but you still seem to make it through. You have to totally trust that God will provide. Ouch, and I thought it was hard getting money for a plane ticket!

     Speaking of plane ticket, this has nothing to do with that! I have had several good talks with the oldest girl here at the orphanage, Maria (not the same as the other Maria (URS))(SO MANY MARIAS [HOLY MOLY] ) She has had... lets just say... a REALLY hard life and she is only 15. She told me that she usually never smiles and has a hard time expressing happiness. But after a few interactions with her, she told me, "I have not ever laughed that hard in my whole life!" "You are so funny!" And then she started joking around herself! Let me tell you, the feeling that you get when you see someone, who never smiles, burst out in laughter and start poking fun back at your potato peeling skills (OR LACK THEREOF), is seriously the best feeling. Oh, and she has learned how to basically have no accent when speaking English. Just crazy crazy stuff Manny.

Oh, this is the other Maria (URS).

Anyways, may the painting of doors continue and may God bless all you at home! Look for Him everywhere, you will find Him.

Gettin to know the kids.

    So here is the thing guys. When I play with them, hang out with them, and play games with them, they are just normal kids! And I freaking love them to death! But most of them have the same story...

    I don't feel that getting into specifics is really a good idea, but most of them were just abandoned at birth in the hospital. It's sad. Something I really try to not think about, but its the truth. But non-the-less they are just the same as other kids. And playing with them is so much fun! I have also been hanging out with some of the older kids too. I went to their school and let me tell you... ITS NUTS! XD but that might be for another time. 

    For the first time, I have seen God directly answer my prayers. Not just one or two, but almost all of them! Crazy things are happening, most of which I actually cannot talk about on this blog at the moment. However, I will hopefully be able to tell you all about everything! A lot of what has been happening revolves around the "Authentic Manhood" study I got to be a part of last year. It is totally worth it, and God is telling me to "man up" in many different ways.

    Thank you for reading this. I have had a lot of people ask me, "How is Romania? I have not been able to read your blog." Haha :] Next person to ask this is going to get a copy/pasted blog post. I am looking forward to it. =D "Oh, well let me just retype my entire blog for you!" WALL OF TEXT.

Prayer is powerful because God is powerful, so pray for the big things. GO BIG OR GO HOME.

It's Monday!!

     Thats right folks, its was just Sunday and things have calmed down... sorta....

After a week of craziness, it's good to just take this day and think. And I have a lot to think about. Why?!?! Well, God told me that I might be starting that orphanage, that I always wanted to set up, much sooner than I thought.

    In my plan, I was going to... Hang on, everyone just yelled, "LA MASA!". So it is time to eat. =]

   Ok where was I? Ahh yesh boi. My plan was to serve here for a while, go to America, do something useful and find a wife, then when I am about 30, start an orphanage in a Slavic(ish) country. Well, it seems like God is going to speed up the clock here a little bit.

   Sounds like God wants me to work on starting this orphanage a whole lot sooner than my plan would expect. It sounds like God wants me to get started on this orphanage as soon as... well this year...

    Holy crap that is soon, I need a breather or something. You know what my first reaction has been for the past few days has been? "I think you got the wrong guy, I know that I am not ready, I am too young God, Soon is figurative right?, thats a lot of trust that I have to put in You God." It took a good talk with Thomas Gregory and Tyler Wendell to remember that I have the God of the universe on my side. That's right, the MOTHER HUGGING GOD OF TEH UNIVERSE SNITCHES!

    In the mean time, I challeneged Florin, as seen in the picture to the left, that if he didnt ask me for a cake (little sweets) until after dinner and asked politely and said "Te rog"(please) then I would give him a cake. Let me tell you, he asked so nicely and he asked for one, not all of them like he usually does. So I gave him one and thanked him profusely! He has a very bright future, and I want to encourage him instead of discourage him. He did such a good job of playing the drums on wednesday! As though it was on instinct, he did everything I taught him and even added a little bit! I am so proud of him!

   And just today I got the chance to hang out with some of the coolest people here in Lipova. They are all awesome and I am hoping to go ice skating with them on wednesday. =D I am pretty stoked.










    I know there is more, but I have to go back to work now. XD Thanks again ladies and gents!

Let me try and catch up...

Things have gotten pretty crazy pretty fast around here. I am going to attempt to organize my thoughts a little more. Ok,

For work:

    I work with three guys: Jonny, Dorel, and (the other one XD). Here is a picture of them (Dorel is on the right)! My name when I work with them is "Little" for several reasons. =D 1: There is a popular TV series starring "Little Will". 2: I am much younger than them. 3: Dorel cannot remember my name being "Will" so he calls me little instead. =D We have been working on insulating and sheetrocking the top of this house as seen below. Waking up early and finishing at sundown. When finished it will house whole teams of vollunteers when they come to help each summer. This will also open up more space for more orphans.

    I dont know yet what all the purposes of this house are, but I suspect it will be used a lot!

    If you want to do some home improvement, then you should really talk to these guys in Romania. They know how to get a job done. XD Let me show you a little Romanian home improvement project that we began today. The front door to the orphanage is broken and needs to be replaced. Well lets take it out yeah? How about like this! (Video)

     That, my friends, is how you do things the Romanian way! We just replaced the whole door frame and got a bigger door. But there is no door in place at the moment! =D HAHAHAHHAHA

    So as some of you may have seen on Facebook, I went with some of the group here to a tongue speaking church. I was unable to take pictures or anything, which is fine. But I have never been to a church like that before. We walked in to a structure no bigger than a small house painted a strange assortment of peach and cyan. Inside everyone was on their knees in front of their seats talking aloud. And a man dressed in all black was at the front looking happy and was indicating for us to sit in the front. Now this is probably where you should know something about me. I see life through a humorous lens, and when I tell stories of happenings, I poke fun at different things that I thought were funny. I also tend to over exaggerate a little bit for comedic effect. Many of you in Bozeman, and even some of you in Romania probably practice tongue speaking. I fully believe that it does happen and it is genuin, However, I also have other opinions about it that I won't talk about here. In no way do I mean any bad things about the practice, but I am going to tell you about what it was like going there for the first time.

    HOLY LANTA MOTHER OF PEARLS AND ALL THINGS UNBELIEVABLE! That is about what went through my mind as I was walking up to the front. I glanced over at the way up to the balcony as a tear of longing dropped from my eye. Arne, Jonny, and all the girls got on their knees and started praying I guess. So, without hesitation, I did the same thing, but faced a wall and got comfortable. Oh my Bonkerville it was LOUD. People yelling... lots of yelling. There was this old guy, like from the Roman Empire era, singing behind me. It was something along the lines of "God you are praised, God you are..." This very point in time is when I said a prayer to God, "God, what the heck did I just get myself into... Why?? What is the purpose of this?" Five minutes pass, no relent, and my knees are hurting. At this time, I began stealing glances from my position. I would wait until the man in black was looking away to learn more about my surroundings. Then some men started singing. It sounded more like chants because there was a lot of repetition in what they said. But remember, I cant understand that much! XD I noticed on one of my glances that one of the singers was staring at me, giving me a dirty look. So I played it off cool, you know, acting like I was doing something holy. Yeah, It was so loud, I could not hear myself think. I had such a hard time even talking to God.

   Finally, after what seemed like a mother hugging hour, the chants up front stopped and everyone sat in their seats. It got really really quiet. "Now that that is over, maybe I can sing some songs!" I thought. After the man in black said some things everyone got back down on their knees. Ohh I wanted to say "poopy" soooo bad. However, I was a little more smart about it this time. I stood up! YES! Some other people were doing it, that means I had the GREEN LIGHT BABY!! Well, I swear this next time was a little louder and lasted about 5 times as long. AND THE ENTIRE TIME, THAT ONE SINGER GUY WAS GLARING AT ME. Ohhhhh snap, I think I need to reconsider my stratagy. Just then I looked down and noticed that someone was recieving a phone call. Yup the phone was RIGHT next to me, and ringing. But that is ok, no one else could hear it. Ohhh the temptation to just hit the green button. XD HEHEHEHEHE noo, I am being watched by chantsville up there. Another day passed and the chanting stopped and we sat down. This is when I took the time to pray. I thanked God profusely that it was over... At that moment Jonny leaned over and told me that the man in black said, "May the Holy Spirit descend on this place and rest here..." Oh no, God, I appreciate humor, but sometimes Your's comes with a knife on the back! After chuckling inside myself, the pain began. Ahhh HA! I have this solved! I will just sit the whole time! BOOM. so I did. Except this time... This time was the big mama. Screaming! Everyone was Screaming! Clapping randomly! OH NO MY EAYEAEYEYEAEYEARS!! This is when it hit me. God used Paul to speak different languages if it was needed, so what if i listen for English! No one here is going to speak English unless they are speaking through tongues right? So I prayed, "God, if I am missing something here, now is a really good time to tell me because no one else would understand, and I could really start opinionating tongues correctly!" So I listened, listened, listened.... All I heard was the man in black yelling at Maria with his hand over her head, and a lot of annoying sound. Not a lick of english. Then finally for what seemed like several months, it ended. The man in black talked about me a little bit(he looked at me and said "American" and "Happy" in Romanian obvously).

    Then we left. That whole event left me tired, sad, frustrated, and confused. None of those are emotions I have an easy time connecting with God about. (My favorite emotions are, hope, love, fear, humor, anger, and distress because I find it really really easy to connect with God there)

 -Was it genuin? Yeah, i believe so. They seemed like they were dedicated to Christ.

 -Is that something I will try? Sure, alone in my room when not a soul is around.

 -Is it completely necessary to follow Christ? Absolutely not.

Please, I know that I will never be 100% correct. This is my blog so a kind of window into my thoughts deal. I respect the people who do this for sure. But Matthew 6:6 says, "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

What do you think? =]

Ping Pong People!

So much is going on! Its hard to write enough about all of it! Oh man, well let me get started with this.

On sunday, I played the drums for church! It is so much fun getting back into the swing of things with music. The only problem is that they have a different genre that they like that i must say... I am not too fond of. XD I will try to find a link in the future for you to listen too. But I continue to play it to my best ability and play it regardless of how much i like or dont like it! =] 

And after that (and some sleep talking during the day and stuff)((I was told that I laughed and talked in my sleep)), the group I now call "my peers" came over and we had a ping pong party! Yay!

It is a huge blessing to have a group of friends here! And they are so funny too. Needless to say though, I only won an game. YEAH AN GAME! But that was fine! =D We also practiced dance moves, swing dance moves, and wrestling. Can you guess who lost at wrestling?? =] Oh yeah, and Ninja.

On monday, I went to Maria's school. The classes are set up like at Heritage Christian. Each class has certain students in each grade, they all travel together in one group between classes. I went to, YOU GUESSED  IT, English class and Computer class (T.I.C.) English class was, lets be honest, a pretty easy class even though the teacher left about 15 minutes into class. XD So I played Tic Tac Toe with Naomi the rest of the time. When that class finished, we all went to Facebook Class. (T.I.C.) We all chose a computer and sat down, turned it on, and got on facebook. =D HAHAHAHHHAAHA ONLY THE GREATEST CLASS EVAR!!! The teacher was grading things I guess??? I dont know but Naomi and I shared a computer, played Cats vs Dogs, and watched "Just for Laughs". It was seriously the most fun I have ever had in 50 minutes, except maybe paintballing. That stuff is INTENSE!

The rest of the day, I am working on construction. Lots of insulation (Vata) needs to be put in. That is what I do for most of my days!

Also, for the first time.... Someone called, "MASA" which means it is time to eat. So I went to the table and sat down. And there were things... things on a plate. I was like, "Ce este?!" When I picked up a fin. Then i realized it was a headless cooked fish. XD Oh this is new! Picking out the bones was not working. I ended up mutalating (SORRY SPELLING) the poor fish. Then Nuti tried to show me how to do it. Lets just say I swallowed a lot of fish bones. I was still hungry and there was a little bowl of soup next to me. "Oh, some soup!" I thought... Nope, after chugging down half of it, I realized that my mouth was on fire and that it was a sort of onion/garlic/nasty mix of things. I sprinted to the sink gaging! HAHA All this kids started laughing. =] I almost puked everywhere, and I came back to a laughing room. Well that was interesting!

I am trying to keep up with everything on my blog. I want to take more pictures and stuff. Put any requests in the comments below!

OHHHHH! And i caught Larry! He is now in a Jar in my room. I am going to find out what he is and then let him into the wild!

My Precious!

Well, let me just show you a normal clip of me doing ...... normal things.....

Yeah, so that happened. I think it might be because Roxana has not given me my ring back. Thats ok, patience is a virtue. =D

So I took a trip downtown with Jonny recently! And for those of you who wanted to see... Here it is, the Cathedrial! (im sorry spell check doesnt work right now)

Sorry, the door was locked and lights were off. X.X And i promise i have a video for you, i just have to get it uploaded. XD

So WILL, WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING FOR YOUR DAYS OVER IN DAT DER COUNTRY?!?! Well Chris Cooper, I have been working construction. XD Yes, construction. We have been putting up insulation and sheetrock for the new place that is being built. I had some pictures but we cant find the camera that took them. Well that is lame! But it has been hard work bringing all the insulation, sheetrock, and I expect more up the 3 flights of stairs to the top of the building. But God has been giving me a happy heart regardless! I usually dont like physical labor, and I want that to change. So it is really cool to see God changing my heart in the small things. =D

Also I tried to take the kids into the church to teach them some music. Well i forgot how hard it is to teach when I dont speak their language. So it turned into a free for all more or less. =D I DID, however, get them all to play Amazing Grace around the same time! So, close... then today an ACTUAL teacher came in and taught the kids. THANK GOD! I guess he heard that I was a drummer and willing to teach Florin the drums. So I sat down and tried to teach him. But here is the thing.... Florin is notorious for having absolutely no attention span. That guy has sooo much energy and is about 11 years old, and he really does not like to show respect to anyone. If he were to focus all his energy toward a single thing, he would learn it almost instantly! So at first it was quite frustrating, while the teacher was teaching others, every 5 seconds telling him, "Tu nu cind acum!" "Ai rubdare!" and "Gata!" which in very bad Romanian grammar means "You no play now" "Have patience" and "Finished/ready". So, I was getting tired of saying all those things over and over, but I didnt want to get angry or anything so i thought of another plan! I told him to play on the chair next to him until he is supposed to play. He started WAILING on that chair so hard! It still made noise but it was sooooooooo much better than him hitting the snare drum constantly as hard as he can! After that, I told him, "MERGEM!" (We go) and I ran around the orphanage with him. When we came back, the teacher looked over and gave me a thumbs up. =] Over all, Florin has a lot of raw ability to play. The only things holding him back are his mindset(he doesnt feel like he can play the toms because they are like new territory for him) and his attention span. None the less, I still love him! He is a really neat guy and is also really really smart! Please keep him in your prayers!

My heart has been in turmoil, My mind is running too fast.

An interesting thing has been happening to me ever since i came. In America, sin happens and it is hard to pin point where exactly it comes from a lot of the time! So many things happened, so many things are pulling our eyes away to watch, ears away to listen, hearts away to socialize. Something goes wrong and I said, "I better not do THAT next time." But that is not how it is here. Simple, very simple. Easy, in a difficult way.

(take this next part how you want to, but this is what i felt)

Why is my heart in turmoil? Well, I have confronted not only my sin, but my inner evil desires. In my prayer, God rattled the bees nest. My sinful nature made a cameo. I felt all the horrible, awful desires and longings that i had been "neglecting" over the past weeks. It was angry, I was angry. My flesh was enraged but I knew God was with me, protecting me from myself. I let myself loose on the keyboard infront of me. I literally met the side of me I hate, face to face. Honestly... I felt like Golem from Lord of the Rings ironicly enough.

You think you are doing good. Doing ok, doing fine... Until you meet yourself. It's not something I want to do again. I still dont really understand why God would love me after that. He has every right to leave me behind, forget about me. I deserve it! I totally do! Yet for some reason... that I will never fully understand... You pick me up, tell me You won't let go, and hold my hand as I begin to learn how to   walk again. 

Absolutely incredible!

Some cooooool cats!

Ahhh, fresh air! So crisp, clean, and humid. Not like Florida but still there is an annoying humidity (compared to Montana). Sometimes, Ill just sit down for a minute, wherever i am at, and just talk to God. Life is good here. Its simple, straight forward,, easy to connect with God, and really silly too. XD For example, down here people are notorious for being on Facebook... ALL THE TIME! =D Men want romantic relationships, and the women just want their cars. Just hilarious stereotypes and stuff!

So, I think i am going to put Larry in a jar.... BEFORE he reproduces. =]

And speaking of pet friends, My new friend is this sweeeeeeety kitty!!!!

I named her Pessic! You call her by rapidly alternating the sounds of "S" and "P". She will come to a specific spot in the basement and expect food from you. However now that i gave her food, then showed her what it is like to be pet and held and loved. Now when i call her, she doesnt even ask for food! She just walks up to me and follows me! She is so cute and such a sweetie.

Today we started work on the house that is being built. I met the two other guys who brought a TON of insulation that we had to carry up several flights of stairs. We started on, and will continue to work on taking the existing sheetrock down and putting in insulation. Its not extremely hard work, but Josh Pummel definitely made a name for himself here! Even the two sheetrock guys said they loved Joshua. XD

Now there is a kid here who is 7 years old, he goes by "Nin" (pronounced Neen). This kid is just too smart for his age. Like seriously, he figures out any game, electronic device, or trick in less than a minute. For his weekends, he goes to *Not sure, but it might be a friends house or his parents house* and he will play Counterstrike, Starcraft 2, and such. During games of Sandwich, I swear he has his deck memorized! He has quickly figured out that the Jack is the most powerful card along with other face cards. And every time he lays a card down first, its ALWAYS a Jack. Plus he will know sometimes a sandwich is coming before he lays down his card. We have frequently caught him cheating, but somehow he still does it and most of the time we dont notice. He gets really upset when I ask him to give me his deck so i can shuffle it, so mad in fact that he will yell or start crying. He really needs prayer because he has the potential to be a very good professional thief. God has blessed him with incredible smarts! I hope God is glorified with them.

And just last night, I got to hang out with cool people. =D While Jonny slept and Maria played Dota 2(silly Maria is addicted =D), Naomi and I goofed around on Youtube and Facebook for like 3 hours. Naomi is awesome and hilarious! And Naomi drew on Jonny. This is a picture of a pen stache. Much more was drawn on him though. XD

So that was awesome!

Any questions? SHOOT ME A FACEBOOK MESSAGE OR EMAIL DUDE! =D

Until next time! Dont smell your feet, that is gross.

Oh no! My ring is gone!

Thats right folks, my ring is MIA. But hopefully I will get in back today. XD

It all started around the same time as our little party shananiganry with the movie. I was sitting next to six girls (added for dramatic effect) and watching an Adam Sandler movie (one of his more clean ones). My redhead friend had watched me drift off into the abyss of women on the couch where moving up there caused me a bloody back (Lame little planks of wood that surround the beds jabbed my back) BLOOD HAPPENED! it was epic. Now I have set the conditions for this occurrence.

So there is this girl named Roxana.... She is the thief! After Maria took it to see it (Both sitting near by), Roxana put it on her finger and left with it! Oh man, how dare she! Just kidding. ;] but really, I can now say she has stolen my purity........... ring. XD HAHAHAHA LOLOL OHH THAT IS A GOOD ONE!

Anyways, I write you from the Camera de Zi. Translated "Day room". Ok ok, ill just show you.

There! You happy Jacky? cool, good to know.

So today i will probably be going to Maria's English class with her today! XD Ironic... my worst class was ENGLISH. Thats ok. Maria made a deal with the teacher yesterday that if she brought me to class, then she would get out early that day. Well she did so now i get to go and tell people what my last name is. And maybe speak in English, and be understood. =D yay!

And I got to feed pigs. They are loud when they are hungry...... =O

Paradox of the Day: Sarcasm is my best friend... =3

My roomate! And an interesting observation!

Well This is kinda an interesting story!

So I had been having dreams about a spider... Every single night... Long legs, small body, tan/whitish completion, perfect recipe for a mean lookin spider. So this morning when i woke up, I was determined to find the little bugger, no pun intended. ;]  And guess what i found.....

So I promptly named him Larry!!!!!!!! He is my roommate!!!!

Now you may be asking in a grumpy upset, slightly scared voice, "WHY HAVE YOU NOT KILLED HIM YET???????" Well that is a fair question good sir/ma'am. Think of it this way, he is one of the few things I have to remind me of home. Everything is so DIFFERENT, but he is not. Larry is just the same as back home.... Maybe a bit bigger (A lot bigger actually) But he holds memories!!!

One of the other big things that reminds me of home is this; people who can speak English really well. First and foremost, Maria Urs (Bear translated ^^) she is so awesome wanting to speak English around me and helping me out so much. Thank you Maria!!!!!!! And Jonny Farcal!!! He is a stud and a half if i ever saw one!!!! super neat guy!!! <3

Now for an observation.... OBSERVATION OK

So people, you take this or leave it however you want but I am allowed to make this observation as a gentleman and a man. Every single girl here is BEAUTIFUL! I have never seen one who is my age and not super pretty. Its seriously the strangest thing ever.

Now with that said, being pretty is nice, but the heart is what matters. So, no cake for you Felicity. Muncesc.

Anyways, I was just hanging out with people in my age group, and they are super funny and I can kinda communicate with them (mostly with Maria's and Jonny's help). But it is so nice to fit in around here!

Keep them in your prayers, i dont know specifics and i cant remember their names. But pray for them and the kids here. Life can be frustrating for them.

Until next time, try tipping your waitress 100% just once this week! Try it.

Now for the Fun!

Read the previous post! It leads into this one!

So, I just realized that I have a limited posting space on this tablet so I have to split it up between certain sizes

So after Jonny showed me my room, he asked me if i was hungry... Oh no, I see God... Everything is going to be fine except for the food... Weeeeeeeeeellll, Actually it was amazing. So incredibly full of flavor! But let me tell you, these dishes look and sometimes smell really bad. There was a "pepper sauce" that Jonny told me was good. Let me describe it to you... It smelled like SPAM, looked like oily SPAM, and was in an unlabeled jar... So I said, "what the heck" and it tasted nothing like Spam! It was actually kinda delicious. Ill try to get some pictures of the food. Also, they named dog food after me.

So there i slept. And slept. And slept. Except when i woke up, it was 11am which is 2am for you. So my body HATED me. Even though i had 9 hours of sleep, it was though i was made of molasses. And the kids had an early day at school so they all came home. I met several in the hallway while they peeked their longhaired 7 year old faces from behind a wall. I turned around and they all pulled their heads back, followed by very loud giggling. So I turned back around and then WHIPPED my head back to see them pull their heads back and just start laughing! You can see two of them, Ela on the left and to the right of her is Ana.

There are about 15 kids in the orphanage and they are all soooo cute!!! There are also some older mid/early teens here too that usually are doing homework. But I did get to hang out with a few of the older kids.
Now here is the really cool part. I got to play with them and most of the younger ones dont speak a lick of English, but i know just enough Romanian to understand some of what they say and talk to them as well! God really blessed me with Dorin to teach me what i know now! And from this point on, the kids are teaching me more Romanian than i thought was possible! I am able to understand almost a third of what they say (With help from a R-E Dictionary)!! They are seriously the sweetest kids because they are super patient with my lack of understanding them, yet still as crazy as kids should be.

God has already done some amazing things! I met with an older lady named Joanne who was from the states. She was the lady i was supposed to give the large sum of money to, And wow did i learn a lot!
She is 82 but is a VERY powerful prayer! When she prays, you better hold on to your seat or else you are going out a window. Absolutely an amazing lady! And It was also very nice to someone who doesnt have an accent and can speak english really well.

Culture shock? I dont know yet. The hardest thing for me is not being able to understand everyone. Otherwise I feel very at home, especially around the kids! And my suspicion was correct! They do need someone to help teach drumming and maybe to drum as well! More on all of that later though, it is late and I am very tired!

Now here are some pictures of the country. It is quite post communist looking if i do say so myself.

Carrier has arrived!

You know what the strangest and cutest thing is on the whole planet? CHILDREN SPEAKING ROMANIAN!!!! Ohhhh, ill get to that in a minute.

So!!!! After EVERY flight being delayed.... I arrived 7 hours late. This is the first picture i took of Romania!!!

What a sight to see!!!!!! The towns have very few lights and there was a heavy fog over the entire country. I get outside on a standup bus in the rain. When i got inside I stood in line for immigration things. They checked my passport and let me in! Woot! As I walked through the door, i didnt even know if someone was going to be there. =O But low and behold, there was a short, bearded, glasses man holding a sign with my name on it and "Lipova" under my name. I gave a huge smile and I got accented English in return! YES, I am here!!!!

     So we got in his car, a little odd looking thing. And as he drove we talked. His English name is Jonny ("Innute" is Romanian I believe). And I learned different things about the orphanage, but it was midnight so i was just sooooo tired. Anyways, we got "Home" and he took me inside this building! On the right. 

And on the inside is my room and the hallway!

Packing!!

Started with some packing the other day! I hope you like seeds because I got 41.6 POUNDS of seeds inside my two suitcases! 

What can i say, they really really need seeds. Going through the airport might be kinda silly... "Sir, why do you have all these seeds?" "What can i say? I get a little hungry..."

Also I am bringing some winter clothing, Gospel phlanalgraphs(Dont even check my spelling), toys, writing and drawing shinaniganry, and medicine. (For the record, you can see some of the stuff above... XD)

And those are the two bags, quite large if you ask me! 50 pounds a piece and ready for a ride. Lets see what God can do!!!

5 Days left
~Will